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Database Committee: Gale eBook Use

Gale eBook Use (AY 2021 - 2022)

Helpful Definitions

Requests

  • Total_Item_Requests - Total number of times a “Content Item” was requested (i.e. the full text or content was downloaded or viewed). For journals, this content item is usually an article. The article could be in PDF, HTML, or another format. If a user downloads the article more than once in a single session, all downloads are counted. If a user clicks on the HTML of an article and then downloads the same article's PDF, the count would be two. All “requests” for or interactions with a title are combined. In other words, it would add up all full text views plus chapter downloads (plus print requests, etc.).
  • Unique_Title_Requests - Number of unique eBook titles requested in a single user session. Examples of “Titles” are  whole eBooks or chapters of eBooks. Any eBook can only be counted once in a single session. If a single user downloads multiple chapters from an ebook, or accesses the ebook several times during a session, all of these would count as 1 unique title request. Each of these interactions would count as item requests and counted in the Total Item Requests counted above.

Note from COUNTER: The Unique_Title_Requests provides comparable usage across book platforms. The Total_Item_Requests shows overall activity; however, numbers between sites will vary significantly based on how the content is delivered (e.g. if a vendor offers chapters only (JSTOR, etc), the total item requests will be higher at the title level then say a vendor who only offers full ebooks).

Notes

Data from Counter 5 Title Report, eBook Top Usage by platform. The data covers 09/01/2021 - 05/31/2022.

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